Method of making novelty yarn



Aug. 29, 1961 H. A. SINSKI METHOD OF MAKING NOVELTY YARN Filed March 22, 1960 f/E/W? Y A S/MSK ATT RNEY United States Patent 2,997,838 METHOD OF MAKING NOVELTY YARN Henry A. Sinski, Alden, Pa., assignor to Joseph Bancroft & Sons Co., Wilmington, De]., a corporation of Delaware Filed Mar. 22, 1960, Ser. No. 16,870 3 Claims. (Cl. 57-157) This invention relates to a novelty yarn and to a method of making the same.

An object is to provide a novelty yarn having novel and improved characteristics.

Another object is to provide a plied yarn having ends of contrasting appearance with random variations in effect along the yarn.

Another object is to provide a plied, bulked yarn having a novelty effect.

Various other objects and advantages will be apparent as the nature of the invention is more fully disclosed.

This invention is particularly applicable to continuous filament synthetic yarns such as nylon or Orlon which have been crimped in a stutter crimper of the type shown, for example in Shattuck Patent No. 2,760,252. In this type of crimper the yarn is crimped in the form of angular zigzag folds and is heat set while the yarn is held compacted in the crimper, after which the crimped and heat set yarn is withdrawn from the crimping chamber under tension and wound onto a package. In the withdrawing and winding operation the crimp is largely, but not completely, pulled out or straightened and the yarn is wound onto the package in this straightened condition.

The yarn on the package is given a temporary straight set by remaining on the package for a substantial period of time. In use the yarn is fabricated, as by weaving or knitting, while thus temporarily straight set, after which the fabric is heated as by steaming to remove the temporary set and to allow the yarn to relax and resume its crimped or bulked form.

In accordance with this invention two or more ends of such temporarily straight set yarn are plied together while being maintained under different tensions so that the ends in the plied yarns are differently stressed. Due to the nature of the previously crimped yarn this stress varies somewhat in a random manner along the yarn so that, when the yarn is subsequently relaxed and bulked, the crimp has a random variation sufiicient to produce a novelty eifect.

The nature of the invention will be better understood from the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which a specific embodiment has been set forth for purposes of illustration.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is an elevational view of an apparatus for carrying out the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a section taken on the line 2-2 of FIG. 1 but on a larger scale;

FIG. 3 is a greatly enlarged detail of a plied yarn according to the invention; and

FIG. 4 is a detail view on a scale smaller than FIG. 3 of the relaxed yarn of the invention.

Referring to the drawings more in detail, an end of a crimped and temporarily straight-set yarn of the type above described is led from a package 11 mounted on a support 12, through a pigtail guide 13 and tension device 14 around a guide roller 15, thence over a guide friction rod 16 and through a pigtail 17 to an eye 18 of a traveller 19 on a ring 20 of a ring-type twister having a spindle 21 carrying a spool 22 on which the yarn is wound. The spindle 21 is driven by suitable means such as a belt and pulley 23. Suitable traversing means is provided to cause relative traversing movement between the ring 20 and the spindle 21.

A second end 25 of yarn of the above type is taken from a package 26 on the support 12 through a pigtail guide 27 and tension device 28, thence around a guide roll 29 and over the guide rod 16. The end 25 then passes around a pair of feed rolls 30 and 31 and leads to the pigtail 17 where it joins the end 10, passing through the eye 18 of the traveller 19 to be wound on the spool 22.

The tension devices 14 and 28 are adjustable to supply a controlled tension to the ends 10 and 25. The feed rolls 30, 31 are driven at a rate to feed the end 25 to the ring twister so as to obtain the desired twist of the plies 10 and 25.

In the above apparatus the tension on the end 25 is determined primarily by the relationship between the drive of the feed roll 31, 31 and the spindle 21 and by the characteristics of the ring traveller device 18. The tension of the end 10 is controlled primarily by the drag of the tension device 14. The adjustments are so made that the tension on the end 10 is much less than that on the end 25. In addition the tension of the end 25 is maintained more uniform due to the eifect of the feed rolls 30, 31 which provide a more accurate control. The end 10 which does not pass around the feed rolls is subject to minor randomvariations in tension because of the nature of the tension device and the friction producing guides. The overall eifect is to cause the two ends to be plied in the form of helices in which the end 25 is more uniform and of lesser amplitude than the end 10, as illustrated in FIG. 3.

When this plied yarn is fabricated into a fabric and relaxed as by steaming, or scouring and drying, or by tumble drying, the straight set is removed and the yarn contracts and bulks to restore the crimp as shown in FIG. 4. In relaxing, due to the random variations in stress the crimp has minor random variations along the yarn which accentuate one end or the other at different points so as to produce a mottled effect in the fabric.

For the above purpose the two ends may be of contrasting colors or of contrasting finishes or of difierent materials according to the eifect desired.

What is claimed is:

1. The method of making a novelty yarn which comprises imparting a permanent artificial crimp to a plurality of ends of synthetic continuous filaments, applying tension to said ends to substantially, but not completely, remove said crimp and substantially straighten said ends, temporarily setting said ends in such straightened condition, plying at least a pair of said temporarily straight set ends together while maintaing said ends under different tensions, and subsequently removing the temporary straight set from the plied yarn to cause the ends to relax and resume their crimped form.

2. The method set forth in claim 1 in which the ends are of contrasting appearance.

3. The method set forth in claim 1 in which the tension on one of said ends is maintained more nearly uniform than that on the other of said ends.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,596,221 Dort May 13, 1952 2,919,534 Bolinger et a1 Jan. 5, 1960 FOREIGN PATENTS 618,843 Great Britain Feb. 28. 1949 

